Today, we announced the availability of Adobe Reader and Acrobat X (10.1). While addressing critical vulnerabilities, as mentioned in Security Bulletin APSB11-16, this important release also includes several other enhancements.

Auto-Updates
About a year ago, we released enhancements to the Adobe Reader Updater (see “Update on the New Updater“). At that time, our data showed that the user population was adopting our updates roughly three times faster than before. With Adobe Reader 10.1 for Windows, we’ve enhanced the fully-automated capability of the new updater, and will be moving our users to adopt that setting, by providing the dialog pictured below within the product.

As a reminder, “fully-automated” mode will regularly check for important updates, download them to your machine, and install them automatically. When finished, you will be alerted via a small message in the system tray that your software has been updated. This method is the recommended best practice for keeping Adobe Reader up-to-date and more secure given the fact that it does not require user intervention.

Enterprise Notes
Adobe Reader X (10.1) is a full installer on Windows and a cumulative update on Macintosh. Adobe Acrobat X (10.1) is a cumulative update on both Windows and Macintosh. As stated previously, SCUP catalogs are available for the Windows platform. For more information, please see the Release Notes.

If you’re like me, you have a ton of useful and valuable information saved as PDFs on your laptop. And, if you’re like me, you get a little frustrated when you have to go back and edit those documents. The process is time-consuming, involves retyping your content with all the potential errors that brings, and often the results aren’t what you expected.

Not any longer. Today we announced Adobe ExportPDF, an easy-to-use, subscription-based, online PDF-to-Word converter that lets you reuse your Word content, which means you reduce errors, improve productivity and finish your projects faster than before. All you need to do is upload your PDF file to our online service via your Web browser. We turn it into a Word document that you then download and edit with ease.

Adobe ExportPDF converts PDF files to native Word 2010 or 2007 DOCX format and can convert the vast majority of PDF files around today, including those containing scanned documents. The only files that it won’t convert are PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDFs, or PDFs with permissions applied to prevent printing, copying or altering content. It will support the conversion of PDF files up to 100MB in size.
By the way, once you’ve edited your Word document, you can use Adobe CreatePDF to reconvert it to a PDF file that anyone can read using Adobe Reader. Learn more about CreatePDF here.

I expect ExportPDF will make my life easier. How about you? Annual ExportPDF subscriptions are just US$19.99 for unlimited conversions. So sign up today.

Earlier this week, with the release of our 10.0.1 update, we included download locations for our first SCUP catalogs. You can find them in the release notes. We’ll also be including them in release notes for updates going forward.

There are separate SCUP catalogs for Acrobat X and Reader X. You can download them from the following URLs:

You’ll find instructions for deploying updates using SCUP and SCCM in our Enterprise Administration Guide which is available on our Enterprise Administration page.

Still hungry for more on SCUP and Acrobat and Reader X for IT? Joel and I will be talking about SCUP and other deployment improvements for Acrobat and Reader X in a free Tech Talk on February 22. Join us.

Today, we announced the availability of Adobe Reader and Acrobat X (10.0.1), 9.4.2 and 8.2.6. While addressing critical vulnerabilities, as mentioned in Security Bulletin APSB11-03, it is important to note that the risk for Adobe Reader X users is significantly lower, as all of the vulnerabilities are mitigated by Protected Mode in this latest version.

Adobe Reader Protected Mode
If you recall, we talked about a concept called ‘sandboxing’ – introduced in Adobe Reader X in November. Highly respected by security professionals, sandboxing is a method of creating a confined execution environment for running programs with low rights or privileges. Sandboxes protect users’ systems from being harmed by untrusted documents that contain executable code. In the context of Adobe Reader, the untrusted content is any PDF file and the processes it invokes. Adobe Reader X treats all PDF documents as potentially corrupt and confines all processing to the sandbox.

Specifically, to protect you and your organization from malicious code that attempts to use PDF files to write to a computer’s file system, Adobe provides an implementation of sandboxing technology called Protected Mode. Enabled by default whenever you launch Adobe Reader X, Protected Mode helps prevent attackers from installing malware on a user’s system, thereby reducing the risk of potential security threats. Protected Mode limits the level of access granted to the program, safeguarding systems running the Windows operating system from malicious PDF files that might attempt to write to the computer’s file system, delete files, or otherwise modify system information.

More Information on Protected Mode?
Check out this new white paper that dives deep into sandboxing and other security features, and how the Acrobat X family of products takes the security of PDF documents and data to a new level.

We’ve been talking a lot about security lately, especially with the introduction of Protected Mode in Reader X. But, when visiting with customers, we’re often asked about the performance of Adobe Reader, most notably on the desktop. End-users often conflate size and performance, which is unfortunate, since it causes a lot of confusion. Much of Adobe Reader’s size can simply be attributed to the fact that it supports all PDF, which includes static and dynamic forms, reflow, read-out-loud, digital signatures, strong encryption, rights management, redaction, geo-spatial tagging, 3D rendering, Flash, collaboration, reviews, and portfolios, to name just a few.

But, when we talk about performance, we focus our attention on specific user scenarios across varying platform profiles, like launching the application, viewing a variety of PDF files both inside and outside the browser, performing specific functions, etc. Prior to developing Reader X, we were very concerned about the impact that strong security capabilities like Protected Mode would have on our performance. So from the outset, we put aggressive goals in place to make sure performance metrics were adhered to and relentlessly scrutinized.

Adobe Reader X is now available! Download Reader X for desktop at http://get.adobe.com/reader/ or access the mobile app on the Android Market via your Android device.

With over one billion downloads, Adobe Reader continues its leadership as the global standard in PDF viewing and interaction.

Reader X for desktop enables an even greater level of interaction with the ability to share feedback through the use of Sticky Notes and Highlighter tools, as well as view a larger variety of content types including drawings, email messages, spreadsheets, videos, and other multimedia elements. You can also take advantage of the added security of Protected Mode in Reader X, which helps ensure safer viewing of PDF files.

With Reader X for Android, we’ve addressed some of the most important features our users have requested including support for Tablets, go to page, search, opening Portfolios and password protected PDF files, and sharing PDF files via email. Adobe Reader for Android was first released back in May of this year and has amassed over 3 million downloads in that short period of time. In Reader X for Android we’ve also expanded language support to a total of thirteen including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, Czech, Polish and Turkish.

Today Adobe is announcing the new Acrobat X Family of Products which includes Adobe Reader X as well as Acrobat X Suite, Acrobat X Pro, and Acrobat X Standard. Reader X will be available for download next month and we want to give you a preview of the valuable new features you can expect.

Reader X continues to set the standard for reliably viewing, printing, and commenting on PDF documents. Plus it’s the only PDF file viewer that can open and interact with all types of PDF content, including forms and multimedia. Building on this strong foundation, we’ve added new features in Reader X to help teams be more innovative and productive in their work. Some of these new features include the ability to:

View and interact with PDF files that contain an even wider variety of content types, including drawings, email messages, spreadsheets, videos, and other multimedia elements.

Make notes and share your feedback with others by marking up PDF documents using the Sticky Notes and Highlighter tools.

Choose reading mode to fit more content on the screen or two-up mode to view page spreads. Use keyboard shortcuts like print, zoom, and find within the browser.

For anyone interested in Adobe Reader security, this is the newly added MAX session, “Sandboxing Adobe Reader Protected Mode” is for you.

I’ll be joined by Suchit Mishra, Acrobat lead security researcher, as we help separate fact from fiction in the buzz around Adobe Reader security. We’ll outline the motivation behind Protected Mode and give a demonstration of Adobe Reader running in the sandbox. We’ll discuss how Reader Protected Mode works and how it can protect end users from Internet attacks via malicious PDF files.

To learn more or register for this limited seat MAX session, check out the details here.